Honestly I feel like such an idiot. I really tought that because I did this stuff for a living that all of this would be so easy. I was so wrong. I keep thinking of all of these little things, and freaking out because we're going to be responsible for 150 people having a good time, finding their way, eating..and enjoying the food, accommodations, and everything in between.
Last weekend I settled on a bridesmaids dress...you'll have to wait to see which one we actually went with! Abbey and Rachel were troopers and helped me make my final decision. We also had our food tasting last week. Sooooooo yummy! I'm so excited about the food!!
We had a meeting with this lady that does Candy Buffets..I really liked her and her pricing was really reasonable, however, Saturday we had a meeting for linens and walked in and saw a candy buffet all set up. All we have to do is buy candy. It was sooo much cheaper, and we could actually pick out our own candy. So we decided to go with that buffet instead. We also decided on white linens for our guest tables with a black runner (Aaron actually picked it out), black chair covers with a white sash and black napkins. We'll do the exact opposite for the head table too. I'm so excited. The black chair covers were do dramatic and made such a statement, the room is going to be so pretty!
We ended our day with tux shopping. Call me crazy but I don't find a tux sexy AT ALL. The stripe down the pants looks so dumb to me, and even if they fit properly they never look like they fit. So it was up to Aaron to pick everything out. Everything will look really nice, and I like what we decided on, but there is just no way to get that excited about the tux stuff.
We had a great weekend, tooling around, seeing Aaron's grandparents, watching movies. It was relaxed and we accomplished a whole lot!
I'm feeling good, getting excited, overwhelmed...but couldn't be happier!!
<3 Karissa
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Almost a Monzo
Lately my posts have been related to what we've been doing to prepare for the wedding. It's such a crazy time right now. In the beginning I really thought we had lots of time, and I wanted to really enjoy being engaged. I haven't really had much time for that! I do know that I can not wait until I'm no longer a Graves (not because I don't like being a Graves. I will always be one at heart) but because I CAN NOT WAIT to be a Monzo.
For starters I will finally be able to "do what I want" because that is the Monzo way of life, and catch phrase.
Aaron has been amazing during all this wedding stuff. He wants to have input and go to meetings. I always tell him, I can do this by myself I'm not going to make you go to that, and he'll always say no I'm going too. I don't want to over do it with wedding stuff, and make him hate the process, but I really think he is enjoying it as much as I am.
I think part of the reason going to appointments are so much fun is because of the way we communicate. We don't hold back, we're not very proper, we tell the truth and show our true colors to everyone we meet. I can't tell you how many times we've been at the jewelry store and we'll have the girls rolling on the floor because of what we're talking about...we don't think it's ever that funny because it's our normal.
We aren't mature about anything, we try to make everything fun, because what's the point if you aren't having fun? When we were registering there was a couple that had walked in with us. We bumped into them a few times through the store and I ended up making a comment about how much more mature they were being while they were registering. We were having a dance party in the store, fighting for the gun (that thing gives you a feeling of power!!!) fighting over items to register for, hiding from each other...it never ended... but I can promise you this, we had waaaay more fun than the other couple.
We never take ourselves to seriously. Everything we do we make sure we can laugh and have fun. I can't wait to be married and experience this for the rest of my life. Some day we'll be that annoying family with kids playing in the toy section, having shopping cart races..all that good stuff, that usually drives all the other people nuts.
I came across a list on Club Wed (Targets wedding club) and it was a list of 101 things to do as a couple. Most of the things are really inexpensive fun activities to do. This weekend we made a fort in the living room. We took it a step further and decided to sleep in our fort, because what's the point in building one if you can't sleep in it? Fort Monzo was pretty awesome, we used the mattress from the guest room, and had a top bunk for the kitties. It was so much fun before we went to sleep I made a comment about how I want us to still be doing this kind of stuff in 10 years, and Aaron said yea, we'll be doing it with our kids too. I CAN'T WAIT. We decided to attempt an even bigger fort next weekend...we'll see.
We bought a game this past weekend the Bride and Groom Challenge. It's a whole book of questions that we have to answer about each other. We create a contract with the winners prize, and at the end total up the answers and the winner gets whatever the contact states. It should be a good time. I love that we can constantly do all these silly things!
For starters I will finally be able to "do what I want" because that is the Monzo way of life, and catch phrase.
Aaron has been amazing during all this wedding stuff. He wants to have input and go to meetings. I always tell him, I can do this by myself I'm not going to make you go to that, and he'll always say no I'm going too. I don't want to over do it with wedding stuff, and make him hate the process, but I really think he is enjoying it as much as I am.
I think part of the reason going to appointments are so much fun is because of the way we communicate. We don't hold back, we're not very proper, we tell the truth and show our true colors to everyone we meet. I can't tell you how many times we've been at the jewelry store and we'll have the girls rolling on the floor because of what we're talking about...we don't think it's ever that funny because it's our normal.
We aren't mature about anything, we try to make everything fun, because what's the point if you aren't having fun? When we were registering there was a couple that had walked in with us. We bumped into them a few times through the store and I ended up making a comment about how much more mature they were being while they were registering. We were having a dance party in the store, fighting for the gun (that thing gives you a feeling of power!!!) fighting over items to register for, hiding from each other...it never ended... but I can promise you this, we had waaaay more fun than the other couple.
We never take ourselves to seriously. Everything we do we make sure we can laugh and have fun. I can't wait to be married and experience this for the rest of my life. Some day we'll be that annoying family with kids playing in the toy section, having shopping cart races..all that good stuff, that usually drives all the other people nuts.
I came across a list on Club Wed (Targets wedding club) and it was a list of 101 things to do as a couple. Most of the things are really inexpensive fun activities to do. This weekend we made a fort in the living room. We took it a step further and decided to sleep in our fort, because what's the point in building one if you can't sleep in it? Fort Monzo was pretty awesome, we used the mattress from the guest room, and had a top bunk for the kitties. It was so much fun before we went to sleep I made a comment about how I want us to still be doing this kind of stuff in 10 years, and Aaron said yea, we'll be doing it with our kids too. I CAN'T WAIT. We decided to attempt an even bigger fort next weekend...we'll see.
We have some great friends that are really looking out for us with this whole wedding, and not just the wedding but marriage in general. They're giving advice, and making it known that they will always be here for us, and will always support us. We're so thankful and happy to have all of these people in our lives.
Lots of wedding stuff happened this weekend and this upcoming week...more updates later!
<3 Karissa
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Yea...we registered for that....
We had such a busy weekend planned, and then thanks to the lovely weather, it all changed. It was still extremely busy, but in a different way.
Everything started Thursday when we went to pick out our centerpieces. I was so excited, we got an estimate for 18 tables, and decorations for the head table as well and it's only about $250!!! The key is to do anything but fresh flowers. Now I love a nice fresh bouquet of flowers just as much as the next person, but a whole room full of them can be soooo overwhelming. So we're going with floating candles, and a few silks here and there throughout each piece. I decided to cave and let Aaron have his tulle and lighting across the head table (barf) when you see pictures of the head table please DO NOT judge me. It's his wedding too. Just know I had nothing to do with it. I might let the decorator put it up and then make some minor changes once she leaves lol!
We were supposed to head to Kalamazoo but winter chose this weekend of all weekends to make it's grand entrance...AWESOME. So we put off meeting our minister until next weekend.
The Bartlesons came for a visit this weekend, so we had house guests both Friday and Saturday night. It's ALWAYS fun when they're in town. We did a lot of bar hopping, and sports watching...well at least the boys did Ashlee and I did a lot of gossiping.
Saturday we had a meeting to pick out invitations...holy stressful. The problem was the more invites we saw, the more options we had...We finally narrowed it down to 4.
Here are 3 of the invitations we have it narrowed down too. One of them just came out last week, so it doesn't have a link yet. Keep in mind we'll change the color to match our colors!!
http://www.checkernet.com/product/UNI-GWX-AENS/?Cobrand=CB&Site=Checkernet&vk=1777211146
We like this one..it's nice, simple, and reall pretty!!!
http://www.theinvitationplace.cceasy.com/WE_ViewEns.cfm?prev=1&TempPrev=0&blnPreviewRequestSubmitted=0&recordsperpage=8&CompletedOrder=0&sBasketID=0&sItemCode=WedEns9423&FromHome=1&Search_intTotalSearchLevel=1&Search_strInputString=15890&Search_strInputKeywords=1&Search_strItemGroup=&Search_blnAccessoryCategoryPage=0&Search_blnSingle=1&alogo=1&menu=none&morethanonepage=YES&HostDomain=www.theinvitationplace.cceasy.com%2F&FirstTimeThrough=1&format=WedEnsCCa&vid=5DC0796CD2
Another simple one. I always aim for simplicity. All the frills and lace and extra junk has never really appealed to me.
http://www.theinvitationplace.cceasy.com/We_ViewEns.cfm?sItemCode=WedEns7432&sCatalogCode=WedEns15CC&iStartRow=41&format=WedEns15CCa&strcontinue=yes&strsearch=yes&vid=5DC0796CD2
Aaron came across this one right when we were finishing up. He really likes this one. Of course my favorite is the one that is brand new and I don't have a link to show that one off. We'll see where we end up. I'm a little bit over making all these decisions.
Saturday we split from Ashlee and JB for a while and when to Bed Bath and Beyond to register!! We had a lot of fun. Our consultant was SUPER annoying. Trying to get us to buy a whole bunch of crap that we didn't need. She also tried her hardest to sell us dishes that are sold one setting at a time...um no thanks, I'm not going to risk ending up with only 3 of everything because 3 people decided to each buy us a setting, but that's it. So we went against her advice and got a boxed set...insert gasp here...I know we are such low life losers for getting a boxed set. Everyone will look down on us! That's pretty much how she acted. She did the same thing when it came to silverware too.
Once we got going we were a little overwhelmed since we were both pretty established before we moved in, we didn't really need much. Everyone kept saying just upgrade everything, seems like such a waste of the perfectly good stuff we have. We did pretty much create a whole new bathroom, and picked out a whole lot of nice sheet sets. She kept telling us to aim high everyone will want to spend a lot of money on us. I think that is soo rude. I would never want a whole ton of stuff on a registry that not everyone can afford. We picked out a few things like pots and pans and knives that maybe aunts and grandma's can go in on together, but I just feel bad having really pricey stuff...like I expect people to spend that kind of money on me. She kept trying to get us to get a dyson..which I would LOVE however I would never ever want anyone to spend $500 on us!! Once we were done they told us we had a really small registry (120) things, and said we would have to come back to get more since that would all be gone by the time I have showers...wow they are pushy.
Come to find out today when I looked at our registry online our oh so wonderful consultant added crap to our registry that we never scanned...extra throw pillows, extra sets of dishes and silverware...I was soooooo pissed when I saw that..you better believe her manager will get a piece of my mind for messing with our registry.
Ok so I rambled for waaaaayyyy to long sorry, but it was a fun busy loooong weekend!!!
<3 Karissa
Everything started Thursday when we went to pick out our centerpieces. I was so excited, we got an estimate for 18 tables, and decorations for the head table as well and it's only about $250!!! The key is to do anything but fresh flowers. Now I love a nice fresh bouquet of flowers just as much as the next person, but a whole room full of them can be soooo overwhelming. So we're going with floating candles, and a few silks here and there throughout each piece. I decided to cave and let Aaron have his tulle and lighting across the head table (barf) when you see pictures of the head table please DO NOT judge me. It's his wedding too. Just know I had nothing to do with it. I might let the decorator put it up and then make some minor changes once she leaves lol!
We were supposed to head to Kalamazoo but winter chose this weekend of all weekends to make it's grand entrance...AWESOME. So we put off meeting our minister until next weekend.
The Bartlesons came for a visit this weekend, so we had house guests both Friday and Saturday night. It's ALWAYS fun when they're in town. We did a lot of bar hopping, and sports watching...well at least the boys did Ashlee and I did a lot of gossiping.
Saturday we had a meeting to pick out invitations...holy stressful. The problem was the more invites we saw, the more options we had...We finally narrowed it down to 4.
Here are 3 of the invitations we have it narrowed down too. One of them just came out last week, so it doesn't have a link yet. Keep in mind we'll change the color to match our colors!!
http://www.checkernet.com/product/UNI-GWX-AENS/?Cobrand=CB&Site=Checkernet&vk=1777211146
We like this one..it's nice, simple, and reall pretty!!!
http://www.theinvitationplace.cceasy.com/WE_ViewEns.cfm?prev=1&TempPrev=0&blnPreviewRequestSubmitted=0&recordsperpage=8&CompletedOrder=0&sBasketID=0&sItemCode=WedEns9423&FromHome=1&Search_intTotalSearchLevel=1&Search_strInputString=15890&Search_strInputKeywords=1&Search_strItemGroup=&Search_blnAccessoryCategoryPage=0&Search_blnSingle=1&alogo=1&menu=none&morethanonepage=YES&HostDomain=www.theinvitationplace.cceasy.com%2F&FirstTimeThrough=1&format=WedEnsCCa&vid=5DC0796CD2
Another simple one. I always aim for simplicity. All the frills and lace and extra junk has never really appealed to me.
http://www.theinvitationplace.cceasy.com/We_ViewEns.cfm?sItemCode=WedEns7432&sCatalogCode=WedEns15CC&iStartRow=41&format=WedEns15CCa&strcontinue=yes&strsearch=yes&vid=5DC0796CD2
Aaron came across this one right when we were finishing up. He really likes this one. Of course my favorite is the one that is brand new and I don't have a link to show that one off. We'll see where we end up. I'm a little bit over making all these decisions.
Saturday we split from Ashlee and JB for a while and when to Bed Bath and Beyond to register!! We had a lot of fun. Our consultant was SUPER annoying. Trying to get us to buy a whole bunch of crap that we didn't need. She also tried her hardest to sell us dishes that are sold one setting at a time...um no thanks, I'm not going to risk ending up with only 3 of everything because 3 people decided to each buy us a setting, but that's it. So we went against her advice and got a boxed set...insert gasp here...I know we are such low life losers for getting a boxed set. Everyone will look down on us! That's pretty much how she acted. She did the same thing when it came to silverware too.
Once we got going we were a little overwhelmed since we were both pretty established before we moved in, we didn't really need much. Everyone kept saying just upgrade everything, seems like such a waste of the perfectly good stuff we have. We did pretty much create a whole new bathroom, and picked out a whole lot of nice sheet sets. She kept telling us to aim high everyone will want to spend a lot of money on us. I think that is soo rude. I would never want a whole ton of stuff on a registry that not everyone can afford. We picked out a few things like pots and pans and knives that maybe aunts and grandma's can go in on together, but I just feel bad having really pricey stuff...like I expect people to spend that kind of money on me. She kept trying to get us to get a dyson..which I would LOVE however I would never ever want anyone to spend $500 on us!! Once we were done they told us we had a really small registry (120) things, and said we would have to come back to get more since that would all be gone by the time I have showers...wow they are pushy.
Come to find out today when I looked at our registry online our oh so wonderful consultant added crap to our registry that we never scanned...extra throw pillows, extra sets of dishes and silverware...I was soooooo pissed when I saw that..you better believe her manager will get a piece of my mind for messing with our registry.
Ok so I rambled for waaaaayyyy to long sorry, but it was a fun busy loooong weekend!!!
<3 Karissa
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Hop on the Crazy Train
Holy cow!!! I feel like my head is going to explode! We were so busy this weekend. Friday and Saturday we went to the Grand Rapids Bridal Show. I had very specific needs in going. We need a florist and ideas for centerpieces, and information about transportation. Lucky for me I found a whole ton of great options! It felt good walking through and seeing all the photographers, and DJ's and reception venues there trying to get our business knowing that we have all of that taken care of, however, we have tons of little things to get out of the way.
I have been trying to price out a candy buffet, I figured we would do it ourselves and it would cost us a lot less money, however I found a great girl and AWESOME buffet that she color coordinates the candy with the wedding colors. Her display was beautiful
I think the giant lolly pops are a little too "5 year old birthday party" But the rest is sooo pretty.
I also found AWESOME centerpieces. I figured I would do them myself as well, since I know exactly what I want and how to do it. We happened to find this booth at the very end of the show that had all of these beautiful centerpieces that were EXACTLY what I had pictured. They were identical to what I want, and priced soooooo well. I did some number crunching for us to put them together ourselves, and the vases alone (3 per table) ran 3 dollars a piece so 9 bucks just for the vases then we would have to get all the stuff to go in them. Their centerpieces that includes the vases the gems at the bottom of the vase, candles, mirrors, and flowers were 9 per table. THAT IS SOOOOOOOO AMAZING! We found 3 that we really liked so we're going to mix and match across the room! I can't wait.
This whole weekend showed me that we're ahead of the game with the big stuff, but so far behind with all of the little stuff...I'm stressing out!!
I have to get bridesmaids dresses, it's so hard to get all the girls together at once. I don't like any of the dresses, they all scream I'm a bridesmaid, and I don't want that. I'm about ready to throw in the towel and say pick your own LBD and be done with it!!
Next weekend:
Meeting our minister
Tux rentals
Invitations
registering!!!!!
<3 Karissa
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